Heins has overseen the development and introduction of BlackBerry 10, a new operating system which is supposed to compete with Android and iOS. He also rebranded the company as BlackBerry, killing the company's name of Research In Motion.

When Balsillie stepped down last year, he was one of the company's largest shareholders with 26.8 million shares, CNET reports. At the time he said, "I remain a significant shareholder and a director and, of course, they will have my full support."